Thursday, June 2, 2016

The One Where Mindy Talks About Her Investigators

Hey people! sorry it has taken me so long to get this up! I have no idea why i was put in charge of all of this! haha
here is last week's email from our lovely missionary. i will be posting this week's email to her blog tomorrow.
i hope you enjoy! :)

Hello Everyone!!

This week definitely had its ups and downs. i feel like I've felt the highest of highs and the lowest of lows this week. We wen district English class finding this week and it was fascinating to watch as people rejected the first pair of missionaries, hesitated at the second pair, and then stop and listen to what the third pair of missionaries had to say. i think it's the same with hearing the gospel, it usually takes people a few contacts with the church before they really stop and listen. Planting seeds or sewing seeds, it's all a part of the harvest.

We had an investigator drop us this week, we experienced on of our miracle finds get anti-ed overnight and our pohpo investigator is sick. But amidst all these trials, we were still able to meet or exceed almost all our goals and we had many tender mercies along the way. i was amazed as we were counting numbers last night to see the shower of blessings that the Lord had given us even though we were going through some trials. The song "Count Your Many Blessings" really does express how i felt last night while reflecting on my week.

Our investigator, Sister Liu, is the investigator that dropped us. She's had a lot of trouble with her husband recently and to be honest, her faith isn't strong enough. sister Mendoza and I have been praying hard for her recently and I think (although it hurts) that this is the answer to our prayers. God needs to humble her first before she can become a true disciple of Christ. I trust God completely and I really hope that she finds her way back to the missionaries someday. Our investigator, Grandma Yu, is the investigator that is sick. Her baptism is supposed to be this Sunday, but with her really bad cough, her daughter wants to cancel it or move it further back. Sister Mendoza and I really don't want this to happen because she's already very old and she also is ready to be baptized. She loves Jesus Christ and wants to follow Him. Her daughter will ask her to stay home from church sometimes if there are too many people going or if it is a little rainy, which is frustrating but i know it's only because she loves her mom. We're hoping that this trial, and keeping the date the same, will help Sister Yu exercise her faith and help both Sister Yu and Grandma Yu learn how to trust God's timing. Who knows though, maybe Sister Mendoza and I will be the ones learning to trust God's timing. We're praying hard for these two.

We went to lunch with a less active this week and while we were at lunch, this less active talked a lot about Jesus. He has a loud voice and so he could be heard from around the restaurant. As we were leaving, a little boy ran up to Sister Mendoza and said, "I know Jesus too!" As we started talking to the boy and his mom, we found out that they are very strong Christians and we asked to meet up with the again the next day. They agreed and Sister Mendoza and I were super excited. We were late getting to the place that we were supposed to meet them at but as we were walking there, we ended up seeing them on the crosswalk going the opposite direction of the restaurant that we were going to meet them at. As we got talking to them we found out that they had been anti-ed hard by the boys father. The boy would ask us questions or say things like, "I don't want you guys to go to an evil church, i want you guys to follow Christ!" It was really sad. We ended up being able to sit down to lunch with them for a little bit but the mom was very closed off. We were able to testify a lot about how this church has blessed our lives, how we follow Christ, and even about the Book of Mormon. Although she would not take the Book of Mormon, I truly believe that we made her doubt some of the things that she had been told about our church. I truly believe that if she is truly a follower of Christ, a seeker of light and truth, she will find her way back to us. It was sad that our little miracle turned sour but i'm grateful for second chances and i'm grateful that i have the chance to fight against Satan every time I bear my testimony of truth and leave people questioning all the anti things that they come across here in Hong Kong.

Despite all the opposition, the Church is growing strong here in Hong Kong and i'm grateful to serve here in Tsim Sha Tsui. The ward is incredible. They are very generous to us missionaries and try hard to fulfill their callings. I'm proud to serve here and i'm excited to be able to strengthen them in whatever way the Lord asks me to.

Funny this week: Our pohpo investigator, Yu Pohpo, doesn't understand the chinese gospel terms so we have to use as many regular chinese words as we can to describe the terms that the church uses. This week we taught about prophets and as we were explaining it she said, "OHHH! I get it! So, Jesus Christ hired Joseph Smith to be His high level (boss type thing) servant." I'll admit, I laughed a lot (because it's a funny statement in chinese) and then testified that yes, Christ called Joseph Smith to be His servant and that he truly had Christ's priesthood power and that we still have it on earth today because of him. It's been a joy trying to teach her as simply as possible and it's been funny to see how she remembers the things we teach her. The church is true and the gospel changes lives no matter what age they are.

About Me

My name is Mindy Adams. I am 20. I come from a family of twelve, so yes, there are ten kids. I have five sisters, four brothers, two sisters-in-law, one brother-in-law, five nieces, four nephews and a whole bunch more to come. I love my huge family. I am LDS and I love it. I hope to someday be an athletic trainer but dreams do change so who knows where the Lord will take me. I am currently serving an LDS mission in Hong Kong China from October 2015 until May 2017.